This invention relates to a caster for furniture, apparatus or the like, especially -- but not exclusively -- for hospital beds.
The term caster includes any type of support structure for beds, furniture and the like which enables these items to be rollingly displaced on a support surface. Thus, a caster includes a device having a wheel, a roller, or the like.
Casters of this type are already known, but for various reasons they are not entirely satisfactory. One of these reasons is the fact that in the prior art such casters usually have a device which can be moved to a position in which it prevents turning of the caster about its upright axis, and a further device which engages the rolling member of the caster to brake the rotation of the rolling member. The prior art proposes constructions wherein the turning of the caster about its upright axis and the rotation of the rolling member are prevented simultaneously, thus making it impossible to either lock the caster against rotation of its rolling member but continue it to permit to turn about an upright axis, or to lock the caster against turning about its upright axis but continue to permit the rolling member to roll. This is disadvantageous and further improvements in this state of the art are desirable for obvious reasons.